中秋节 - Free Printable Download

I personally feel that Chinese celebrations and festivals are losing their significance here in Singapore with the kiddos. Ask any kid and he / she can tell you about Christmas or Easter bunny but when you ask them about Dumpling festival or Mid Autumn Festival, not many would know the story or how it came about.

I make it a point to revisit these festivals and how they came about with the kiddo every year. I have been using series of books which is on 传统节日 and for 中秋节 (mid autumn festival), here's how the book looks like:

I bought some ingredients and will be making the snow skin mooncakes with the kiddo. We made them before when she was about 3 though her role was more of the kneading and eating kind. :p

At the same time, I also made a 中秋节 Printable Pack which you can download by clicking on the link (more so a mini pack actually as I was running short on time!) to extend the learning with Dumpling. It's fairly straightforward where she practised a bit of writing,

And thereafter I extended it to some Han Yu Pin Yin work: (you can add on to it like I did or if your child is new to HYPY, you can write the 韵母 but ask your child to fill up the 声母),

And to a bit of drawing / illustration and Oracy fun, I added on the activity below which the child is able to tap on his / her imagination. 

After she drew it, I got her to name the various parts of her 'house' (in her case more so a castle lol!) and she came up with her own mythological creature - a hippogriff which she calls 河马鱼。

For those of you readers who do not have the story book, I have included 1.5 pages of the story in the printable pack along with 2 video links (links are mentioned on the cover page) for your easy reference. There is also a page on word recognition / vocabulary and another on comprehension.

As this was meant just as a 1-2 lesson activity so the pack is relatively short. If you wish, you can extend on your own to make crafts - lanterns or mooncakes like us! I hope that you enjoy this mini printable pack!

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Through her eyes #5 - Dumpling's daily activities journal - a FUN FUN FUN way to learn time! :) + FREE PRINTABLE!

Dumpling is getting the hang of telling the time and has been very excited in being able to "read" the wall clock. One of the things that she usually does these days upon waking up is to look at the clock immediately and tell us the time. If she is not quite able to (as in to the exact minute of for e.g. 7:37am because my wall clock does not have the numerals for minutes labelled on it), she'd sneakily wait for the minute hand to travel to the positions she knows and then read it off proudly (and LOUDLY, I must add).

For some strange reason, one fine day while rummaging through the storeroom, she found my beloved Gruffalo paper plate (which I hoarded for 2 years!!!). While all I saw is 'partyware', she saw a 'clock'! And asked for us to use it and make it into a clock! Here it is!

We made this together with a braid fastener in the middle to hold the hands and we have been using this to revise and to work on our "time" sessions. Along the way, I dug out an old resource which I have and that is a dry erase book which the kiddos can fill in the time and draw in the hands.

It then occurred to me that it would be a lot more fun for the kiddo if the activities listed in it are about her day instead. The idea is to make it 'applicable' for her where she tries reading and recording the time before she begins some of her daily activities!  

I printed mine into a booklet and above is the book cover

Since she likes looking at the wall clock once she wakes up, I incorporated that as part of the 'time' which she needs to record in this journal too  

 The page is designed for homeschooling and non-homeschooling kiddos

And I have included some fun evening activities as a checklist too!

Now, have you gone all excited about this journal? I am pleased to share that you can download this activity journal here! 

Edit: I printed my copy as a booklet but the file is in A4. You can laminate it and then write on it with markers so that it can be reused over and over again. :) This is our last stage in the journey of learning and writing out the time where we have already learnt the basics.  

I received several questions about how one can start off teaching time. I started off teaching Dumpling using a resource which I blogged about here. As an overview, the steps which we went through are:
- introduction of long (minute) and short hands (hour)
- teaching of o'clock (long hand pointing to 12)
- teaching of half past, quarter past and quarter to (use pizza slices, foam etc if you need to, to show half and quarters)
- teaching of counting in 5s so that the child is about to read in blocks 
- drawing of hands (Gruffalo clock is wonderful for that. We progressed from gear clock to our DIY clock where she needs to manually move each hand)
- writing the time in digital clock format (using digits)

For multiplication by 5s, it will take a bit of time. Manipulatives are good. We also used hands & feet - 5 fingers and 5 toes. There's a certain element of rote learning in this but the idea is to let the child understand that each block equals to 5 mins and if the child is stuck, he/she knows how to count in groups of 5 to get for e.g 40 the minutes (half past = 30, and then add on 2 blocks of 5). There are loads of songs on YouTube which are useful in getting the child to remember them too. 

(Please note that as with all the other free downloads in this blog, it is for personal usage and is not for any form of sales. I would also appreciate it if you do not edit it and then sell it as the entire purpose of this is to share this resource so everyone can use and enjoy the pack.) 

This is part of our Fun with Math series! 

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Teaching Preschoolers Chinese - 路德系列： 路德做汤

Chinese is still one area which I try very hard to support from home and because we started reading with Dumpling from young, she developed a love for books at a tender age too. So for a lot of the activities that we do at home, I try very hard to use a literature based approach where we can extend to activities after reading the title. 

We bought a series called 路德系列 which is simple as it has repetitive words yet introduces vocabulary. The series is split into 4 themes with 6 titles in each. Having read through a few titles with her, I decided to extend it into a series of small activities. 

I basically made an A4 booklet for each title where the cover and title of the book were pasted on the cover. 

  

For this title, it is on 路德做汤 so on Day 1, after reading, we extended into hands-on learning with some of the actual vegetables and ingredients used in the story. I also got Dumpling to try and cut up some of the vegetables (with my help)...

Which I later used it for a stew... 

While I was cooking, I left her with papers, scissors, glue and a "pot" to make her own stew...

 On Day 2, we worked on vocabulary and word recognition

 And on Day 3, we worked on other things such as verbal skills and 量词。

I have finally finished checking the pack and here's the link to share! (As always, the pack was created for homelearning support and is not meant for any sales / for any profit making activities. Please do not edit / tweak it in any way. If you spot a mistake / typo or you have any feedback, please email me at beanienus{at}gmail.com. Thank you!  

Advent Activities - A Christmas Title for Kids: Mortimer's Christmas Manger

As part of the Advent Activities series, Jennifer and I will be sharing some Christmas titles and reviews. To kickstart, I am excited to share on "Mortimer's Christmas Manger", a title which I chanced upon. 

 

A recent title which Dumpling and I read, I really did not know what to expect though I saw a few preview pages and read the reviews. I did not expect to enjoy the story and thought it to be yet another Christmas title but I was pleasantly surprised. 

Mortimer's Christmas Manger is a simple yet heart warming story told from the viewpoint of a little mouse and is written by Karma Wilson (the author of the popular "Bear Snores On" and "Bear Stays up for Christmas"). The tale tells of a mouse's search for a new house and finds his way into the Nativity scene where he creeps into a manger every night. During his little adventures, he learnt about Baby Jesus and realised whose house he was sharing. 

With all the commercialism of this season, this book shares, in a gentle manner, the spiritual aspect of Christmas which is certainly a nice change. I especially like that the author, chose a seemingly small and insignificant animal to spin the story around, very much like Jesus who does not discriminate.

We especially like the ending where even Mortimer... well, I will not include any spoiler here. :) 

We read this before bed and strangely, I felt touched and humbled. It was certainly a nice story to end the day with. 

Now, since the story centers around the stable and the entire nativity scene, here's some extension activities to share! :) 

Extension Activities Suggestions:

1) Re-enact the Nativity Scene with your children using these printables:
From Activity Village (For older children who are able to colour)
From Gospel Hall (No colouring involved but will require parental assistance in cutting and folding. Cool factor: Includes a 3D stable print out!) We did this last year and it looked amazing!  

2) Nativity Calendar Printable

3) Nativity File Folder Games (Colour introduction for the young)

4) From 1+1+1=1: Nativity Preschool Pack

5) Nativity Pre-K Pack from Over the Big Moon

ENJOY!!!! :)


This activity is part of an Advent Activities series where we aim to share on a daily basis the various activities we are doing as we lead into Christmas! 

Head over to my partner-in-crime Jennifer to see a really cute spiral craft she made! PLUS, have a go at some Trivia questions she researched and posted up! Do you know that the sleigh is pulled by 9 reindeers - why the odd number? What other the other reindeers besides Rudolf? All this and more! :) 

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If you have any posts where you can share on the spirit of giving (gifts), joy of sharing (resources/tips/ideas) or the importance of loving (musings/parenting thoughts/values, etc.), please do link up and grab our badge! 

FREE Printable - A smurfy good time!

"La la la la la la, sing a happy song, la la la la la la, smurf the whole day long," Dumpling has been singing this song every now and then. To encourage her interest further in the Chinese language, I even bought a set of smurfs books in Chinese.

So, on a quiet afternoon when I was on leave and everyone was sleeping and inspired by other homeschooling blogger mums such as homeschool creations, I started creating a Preschool pack from scratch just for the fun of it. 'Cos I know that Dumpling will certainly love it. I am creating a Chinese version but that will have to wait till later as my schedule is a bit packed with planning of some new ideas and initiatives.

The images used in the packs are from Free Smurfs Clip-art Pictures and Images and Smurf Pictures Smurfette Pictures Papa Smurf Images. Please note that this clip is for personal use and not for selling or to be used in any profit purpose. Please do NOT host the file anywhere else but link them to this page for the download (do not link to the download directly as I may end up shifting the files to other sites and the earlier link you have will not be applicable).

Thank you and enjoy!

For easy convenience, I have decided to upload the printable here. The pack consists of:

- Pre-writing exercises

- Mazes

- Literacy exercises - starting consonant sounds, rhyming words, antonyms, etc.

- Math - one-to-one counting, patterning, etc

- Logic activities

and finishes off with a creative thinking page

Here's some pictures to share:

We have a DVD on one of the series and I also extended the rhyming exercise with a Learner Rod readers set which complements one of the rhyming exercises

For exercises such as these below, I leave her these days to attempt on her own while seated next to her

A "trick" question in one of the activities on "Prepositions" :)

For the pack activities, this was about how much we attempted this morning before heading off to church. So, this pack should last through  1 - 2 more days. :)

And inspiration struck! I extended to to the below

Dumpling loves to draw maze lately and I personally think it is a great exercise to develop critical thinking skills. So with a Geo board, off we explored. We did this together and I gave her a smurf figurine to "walk through".

Here, she made small amendments to the walls as she continues to develop her maze 

And tada! Finally, the maze is completed with the walls and the routes she wanted.

Finishing off with "villians" for more thrills!

You can view some smurf clips on YouTube and here's one:

Montessori Chinese (Preschoolers) 新蒙氏阅读 Part 2

Dumpling and I have slowly moved on to Section 2 of the Montessori Chinese set.

I started off with the thought that it would be simple but boy, was I wrong! It was not as quick and simple as identifying body parts but it links the words to our "senses" and forming phrases and short sentences.

In this second section, I placed more emphasis on Word Recognition 认字 hence I tried the word matching exercise without any picture aid. :p

Here's the link to download the simple activity.

How we used this was, I first taught her how to recogise the words by comparing the similarity of the cartoons / pictures with the shape of the words (page 1). These are what worked for Dumpling so do improvise / change accordingly to whatever works best for your child.

Thereafter, I read the rhyme with her placing more emphasis on the words we just learnt (Page 3, left side). The next exercise is to then do a word matching exercise (Page 2, left side).

 Finally, you can use page 2 (right side) for memory game, word hunt or 排字. We also extended to 手 and 摸. This is where I bought my set from.

Montessori Chinese (Preschoolers) 新蒙氏阅读

Being the HS junkie, I stumbled upon this set quite by accident while surfing on some FB shops.

What attracted me to the set was that it is thematic and this makes it easier for me to use with Dumpling. The activities in this series seems to be short which is great for kids at this age.

There are 8 sets in this series with each consisting of some picture/word cards and 2 books. One book is story based (a few short stories) and the other is mainly poems / rhymes with some simple activities designed for the parent / teacher to have some quick Q&A with the child and to encourage the child to discuss the story.

The word cards complement the poems as they are the key words which are presented in the poems (though not all are listed).

I saw firsthand, how simple rhymes and songs help Dumpling with her grasp of the Chinese language and that primarily was half of what contributed to my purchase.

In her class, the children are exposed to songs being play softly in the background (sublimal programming perhaps?) and each week, the children learns a new rhyme / song (at the minimum).

From such activities, Dumpling's grasp of vocabulary has improved. I personally felt that this also contributed to her speaking in short sentences more and very naturally.

How we use this at home was that I would scan and print an enlarged version of the poem / rhyme so its easier for Dumpling and I to share. After going through it, we would then play some games. This is usually either a picture / word match or a word hunt game.

On the left is how the word cards look like.

The downside of this set is that I wish the word cards were printed on thicker art card though it did have perforation which makes "tearing" easier (I shudder to think how much cutting is involved if they are not perforated!). Additionally, to play the picture match game, you will need to make a copy of either side because the cards are printed back-to-back with pictures on one side and the words on the other. So you will need the extra set to match the words with the pictures. Hence for Dumpling and I, we needed to prep a bit before using the set. I bought this set of materials from this facebook seller: http://www.facebook.com/#!/unikidsbabies

Here, Dumpling attempts to read the short rhyme (read to her on 2 occasions prior and she was able to grasp it quite quickly so I do think the rhythm and early exposure are seem to be useful).

It consists of word / picture match. The next page can be a memory word game where you print 2 copies with the next page on stringing the words together which forms some of the sentences in the rhyme. I have also included some writing exercise. Please leave a comment if you have the set and find this useful or have other suggestions to share. :)  Lastly, I also prepared some very simple learning aids to help with word recognition (so that I know she's not just reciting / memorising) and for her to build short sentences together. I have uploaded the learnings file here.